Share This Page

Hey
So as the title says, I need a bit of help of bio scientist or whoever thats willing to help me out really

SO, in my Infection Science module, I got to write in class 100 mark essay. Thats a lot of mark for just one question lol. Never had to do something like that. Not for 100 marks.. part 1 is just mini questions but part 2 consists of 100 mark essay. I have got some sample questions and I have been going through my lecture notes and various sites on the internet to find enough information to answer these.

But I want you guys to leave as many bullet points as you can for the following questions . Just in case I missed out anything in my research. These may not be the exact question choices in my exam, but I just want to see what kinda points you guys would make for these questions . These are just examples. Remember, these are 100 mark each.

1) Discuss how the major virulence factors of Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus play a role in pathogenesis.

2) Discuss the processing of a sputum sample including potential pathogens, their isolation and identification.

What level is this at? 100 marks for A level is not going to be the same as 100 marks for a masters final project. I can make a broad guess from the questions listed but specifics help.

Afraid biology is not really my game, I wish I knew more of it as I could probably do some incredible things if I did but such things are probably the fate of all those that know of other fields. However much like all science is observe, test, repeat there is an awful lot of overlap when it comes to writing reports.

Do you know any more about this 100 mark breakdown? I have been in situations where some 50% is actually for style, punctuation/grammar and such like. Personally I write them as though they are said 50%, if only because it is a good habit to be in when you do it for real, but I am also not one to care much for marks.
If your module/place of education has a style guide then follow that. It might not be ideal but that is besides the point. If not I usually favour executive summary, introduction, say what you are going to say, say what you came to say, summarise what you just said and then some conclusions, tables and figures at the back. If you can break down the questions further* then do so. If you need a computer program for this then I highly suggest learning Lyx (it is a simpler way of doing La(tex) which is all but standard in science/engineering fields.

*again not a biologist but I will take 2) as it is closer to my world. So you have a small ampoule of sputum, I would also have to question if this is a precious resource (walking two floors up and asking someone to gob in a jar vs something rushed overnight across the country sort of thing), what level of hazard might be faced (obviously you are not going to take a swig but potential airborne/aerosolized pathogens vs need blood contact...) and if you have a timeframe (no point in doing a 3 week culture if the patient is circling the drain and you have another potentially useful, though perhaps less accurate/conclusive, option you can do in a couple of hours). Most tests want a rather more precise sample than might be delivered. Likewise are you being directed to search for something specific -- "something is wrong" is really no help so you will probably be directed towards something (see also why they have "standard drug panels"). Subject showed symptoms consistent with viral, bacterial, parasitic... (delete as appropriate) infection of a given type is hopefully what you will be given. Some of those can probably be seen under a microscope (with appropriate light filters, stains and whatever else, to say nothing of simple detection vs counts), others you are going to want to culture (assuming you have the time), others you might have chemical (or biological/antibody type) detection methods for and each will have sample preparation methods. Anyway the point was that if you can discuss the methods for a viral infection, a bacterial infection and a parasitic infection then a blend of them together might not read as well as more clearly separated methods.

Unfortunately ever since the GSCE days, I have been in that age group where EVERY SINGLE YEAR whatever I study ends up being a newly designed module/course -.-
There is no past paper for this particular test. Asking the lecturers for help gets you very vague response.

The module is extremely diverse and I doubt those questions will come. But I just wanted to see what other people would mention in their answer.

As for marking scheme, I dont think it has a particular mark set for Intro/Main Body/Conclusion. I guess they want you to make enough valid points in relationship to the question. Which is why I am asking for as many things to be mentioned as possible lol.

Unfortunately ever since the GSCE days, I have been in that age group where EVERY SINGLE YEAR whatever I study ends up being a newly designed module/course -.-
There is no past paper for this particular test. Asking the lecturers for help gets you very vague response.

The module is extremely diverse and I doubt those questions will come. But I just wanted to see what other people would mention in their answer.

As for marking scheme, I dont think it has a particular mark set for Intro/Main Body/Conclusion. I guess they want you to make enough valid points in relationship to the question. Which is why I am asking for as many things to be mentioned as possible lol.

Click to expand...

I am not a particular fan of abusing exam technique but it is still applicable.
There might be no past papers specifically pertaining to it but get what you can anyway -- have a chat with those in the year above you, or possibly the lecturer's phd candidates, and figure out what the lecturer (or their predecessor) taught in years prior. It is widely held that only time a lecturer will fully write new notes/exam questions is when they are a junior lecturer and maybe as a reader, obviously if something radical happens then that can change but this is not one of those occasions. Hopefully the suggested reading is worth a damn (it can go either way in my experience).
You might have to piece together a few things from a couple of previous modules and fill in the blanks/expand upon a concept but it should still be doable.

"I dont think it has a particular mark set for Intro/Main Body/Conclusion"
I did not mean to imply such a breakdown, it was more my preferred method of writing a scientific/engineering sort of thing like this. It is dangerous for me to say but imagine a textbook passage on the subject, regurgitating one (even from memory) is bad but being able to write your own will get you most of the way there.
Going back to 2 to my mind it is asking you to demonstrate you understand the concepts of lab testing and how to vary the approach with the demands of the task at hand. I do failure analysis of things and if I have a failed item that I am going to have to go to court to do something about then it changes my approach radically (non destructive vs destructive testing vs partially destructive, I tried to cover some similar parallels for your world), to what I might do if I have test batch for a new product I can break as many as I like for, even if the ultimate force/failure model is exactly the same.
I imagine 3) is very similar but it has been a while since I have seen the full protocol for that one, and the one I saw was more patient focused than lab work.

1) does look a bit closer to a quote the textbook type answer. However if I had to guess then the textbook you might have been suggested would have all the info but in such a way that it would be immediately obvious if you did not grasp the underlying principles, or there might be some combinatorial factor at play (one aspect poisons you which would be manageable but something else might have otherwise lessened your ability to do something about it).

In short pipettes, swabs, agar jelly, incubators, face masks, labeled test reagents, timers and centrifuges are not complex equipment. However there is a reason why the people operating them have as much training as you do and you need to prove you can hang at that level and show you know why they do what they do. Unfortunately you also have to showcase this within a test/coursework environment rather than one to one but such are the perils of the current school model.